London and Partners Report Points to a Record-Breaking Year for Tech Sector

London & Partners have compiled statistics on the level of investment in the UK technology sector, which attracted record levels of venture capital funding in 2014.

With 284 investment deals taking place across the whole of the UK in 2014, amounting to more than $2.1bn, the figures represent a huge increase on the level of investment in UK tech.

As the tech sector in London and the rest of the UK grows and matures, so too are the funding rounds being secured by UK companies. One of the largest investments of 2014 was $130m by Momondo Group which operates the travel search website Cheapflights.co.uk.Momondo CEO Hugo Burge (above) believes that London’s DNA is a large part of what helped them to grow on a global scale and secure such a high level of investment:”London’s entrepreneurial drive, dynamic business environment, source of diverse amazing talent and global outlook has been the perfect foundation for us.”

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is equally convinced that the UK tech sector has helped these investments go through: “Our tech sector has fostered bucket loads of innovation and entrepreneurialism, and is now becoming an industry that’s changing the way the world does business, creating real jobs and economic growth both in London and across the entire country.”

Eileen Burbidge, Partner at Passion Capital who invest in tech startups believes London’s dynamism is unrivalled across the world: “Too many people still believe that tech innovation and investment is centred around the US. In fact entrepreneurs, companies and investors are all gravitating to London to set up shop and launch products, lured by a rich talent pool and a vibrancy and dynamism that simply doesn’t exist elsewhere.”

A dozen deals worth more than $40m each were closed in 2014, up from only four the year before. Research from Oxford Economics also suggests that this level of investment and tech success in the UK is set to continue growing: “Over the next ten years the number of digital technology companies in London is expected to rise to 45,000 adding 46,000 new jobs in the process and creating more than £12 billion of economic activity.”

As well as the Mayor, Eileen Burbidge and CEOs of companies which secured investment in 2014, Tech City UK CEO Gerard Grech gave his thoughts on Britain’s record-breaking year: “These numbers are testament to the skillsets and the increasingly strong digital clusters across the UK, coupled with improving policy conditions. Building on London’s success and creating connectivity between different cities and clusters will continue to drive the overall health of this fast growing sector.”

Data obtained from CB Insights‘ deal records from January 1st 2014 to December 19th 2014.